The early pioneers of the Lions were two cricketers, Arthur Shrewsbury and Alfred Shaw. Having taken a party of cricketers to New Zealand the previous year they thought a rugby tour would be fun. Twickenham rejected their ambitious plans but the pair secured the services of 20 players from the north of England and Scotland and two others were added, one of them C Aubrey Smith, who was later to make his name in Hollywood but was then living in Australia. There were no Tests but these frontiersmen played 35 games in New Zealand and Australia and won 27. Tragically their captain Bob Seddon drowned while sculling on the Hunter River.

1904

Lost 9-3, Wellington

It was to be another year before New Zealand were called the All Blacks but under their brilliant captain Dave Gallaher they put the tourists, who had won 14 games in Australia, in their place. Not for the last time things proved more difficult on the other side of the Tasman Sea and the loss of their Scottish captain DR Bedell-Sivright, who broke his leg in the first game in Canterbury, was crucial. Two of the touring party were actually New Zealanders, Pat McEvedy and Arthur O'Brien, medical students at Guy's Hospital. The visitors' bitter pill was a Test defeat but at least no one drowned.

1908

Lost 32-5 Dunedin; Drew 3-3 Wellington; Lost 29-0, Auckland

An unhappy tour all round with the Scots and Irish refusing to join the English and Welsh on their latest big adventure and the tourists losing two of three Tests. Only 11 of the tourists were capped and their Test defeats were massive in this era. In the first Test in Dunedin the crowd rioted in protest at excessive ticket prices of two shillings and tore down fencing. The second Test in Wellington was played under such wretched conditions that only 10,000 turned up to watch.

1930

Won 6-3 Dunedin; Lost 13-10 Christchurch; Lost 6-3, Lost 15-10 Auckland; Lost 22-8 Wellington

The Leicester forward Doug Prentice became the only other Englishman apart from Bill Beaumont to captain a Lions squad in New Zealand when he led another unsuccessful mission. As it was the first tour to be sanctioned by the four home unions, these were the first true Lions tourists. At 30 Prentice was past his prime and played in only one Test. As ever, there were controversial selections, with the party including only one Scot in Hawick's Bill Welsh. In the first Test the Lions played in blue and the All Blacks switched to white shirts. It was during this tour that some bright spark realised red would be the colour in the future and the famous jersey was adopted for following tours.

This was the first tour to New Zealand dominated by Welshmen with 14 of their players in a squad captained by an Irishman, Karl Mullen, who had led his country to triple crowns in 1948 and 1949. On paper players such as the great Irish fly-half Jack Kyle and the Welsh centre Bleddyn Williams made this a strong side but the All Blacks once again prevailed after being held 9-9 in the first Test, a late try from Ron Elvidge salvaging the game for the hosts. After that the All Black forwards dominated the series.

1959

Lost 18-17 Dunedin; Lost 11-8 Wellington; Lost 22-8 Christchurch; Won 9-6 Auckland

A mammoth tour that also took in Australia and Canada saw the Lions score 842 points and 165 tries in 33 games but still the boot of Don Clarke and the dominance of the second-row Colin Meads, who was to face the Lions 11 times in the All Blacks shirt, denied a formidable touring team led by another Irishman Ronnie Dawson. The Lions were justifiably aggrieved at losing the series 3-1 with Clarke landing six penalties in the 18-17 win in Dunedin while the Lions scored four tries.Their only consolation was a 9-6 win in the last Test when again they scored three tries, one from the new star turn Bev Risman, a fly-half who would later play for Great Britain at rugby league.

1966Lost 20-3 Dunedin; Lost 16-12 Wellington; Lost 19-6 Christchurch; Lost 24-11 Auckland The year in which England conquered the world with a round ball saw the Lions whitewashed for the first time by the All Blacks with the oval ball. The squad was led by a Scottish forward, the late Mike Campbell-Lamerton who proved inadequate on the field and dropped himself midway through a thoroughly depressing tour. Again the All Blacks used the brute force of their pack to quell the visitors with 'Pinetree' Meads and the likes of Brian Lochore and Kel Tremain in their pomp. It was an era of over-zealous forward play with the Governor General and the chairman of the New Zealand Rugby Union called in to talk to the two captains on the eve of the second Test.

1971Won 9-3 Dunedin; Lost 22-12 Christchurch; Won 13-3 Wellington; Drew 14-14 Auckland Carwyn James, the visionary Welsh coach, masterminded this one and only Lions Test series triumph in New Zealand. A side dominated by Welshman, the incomparable Barry John, the captain John Dawes, Gareth Edwards - fending off Bob Burgess - and Gerald Davies, won the Tests in Dunedin and Wellington but even this series win was mightily difficult and only a drop-goal by JPR Williams in the final Test earned a draw and clinched the series. Outside the Tests a shameful display by Canterbury dominated. Their thuggery ended the tour of the Scot Sandy Carmichael who suffered multiple cheekbone fractures.

1977

Lost 16-12 Wellington; Won 13-9 Christchurch; Lost 19-7 Dunedin; Lost 10-9 Auckland

Another Welshman, Phil Bennett, was confident he could emulate the feats of Dawes six years earlier but after the triumphs of 1971 and 1974 in South Africa, where Willie John McBride was the captain, a golden age of Lions rugby was starting to fade. The Lions forwards were still dominant, however, and in the fourth Test the All Blacks resorted to using a three-man scrum. But Bennett, JJ Williams and Andy Irvine apart, the Lions backs could not match the previous two tours' strength behind the scrum. The tour ended bitterly with the narrowest of defeats, 10-9, robbing the Lions of at least a share of the spoils.

1983

Lost 16-12 Christchurch; Lost 9-0 Wellington; Lost 15-8 Dunedin; Lost 38-6 Auckland

Another whitewash in the land of the long white cloud. Ciaran Fitzgerald led the Lions, a controversial choice because the selection of the Irish hooker led to England's Peter Wheeler, arguably the best No2 in the world at the time, staying at home. Like Campbell-Lamerton, Fitzgerald could not really justify his place in the Test squad and the Lions were outclassed. At the time the huge gulf between the amateurs of the northern hemisphere and the shamateurs of the southern hemisphere was beginning to show and the standard of back play in Europe was miserable. There were brief glimpses of class from Ollie Campbell and John Rutherford but, by the time the Lions were routed in the final Test by an embarrassing 38-6, the Lions had been swamped in the rain and mud of a harsh New Zealand winter.

1993

Lost 20-18 Christchurch; Won 20-7 Wellington; Lost 30-13 Auckland

Ten years on and rugby now had a World Cup and proper organised leagues in Britain and the standards of the Lions were on the up again. But agonisingly Gavin Hastings' team just fell short, robbed by a harsh refereeing decision in the first Test which gave Grant Fox the chance to land a late winning penalty. They triumphed in Wellington when for the first and only time they reached 20 points in a Test against the All Blacks only to stumble at the final hurdle.